Opuscula Two major airlines Strand passengers

Do governments have obligation to aid passengers?

Within the last 60 days two major airlines have called it quits. Neither airline was the national carrier for the country in which the companies were registered.

Germany’s AIR BERLIN was the first to fold, leaving some passengers stranded far from home. For some airline watchers, including savvy travel agents, the Air Berlin demise was hardly a surprise. Other travel agents, particularly in the U.S., kept on selling tickets on Air Berlin flights right up until the end. A check of one of Air Berlin’s web sites, https://flights.airberlin.com, does not suggest the company is grounded; potential passengers simply cannot find future flights.

England’s MONARCH AIRLINES shut down without warning, stranding passengers far from home.

According to the BBC (http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41466722) there were four reasons for Monarch losing its crown.

The BBC claims that Monarch failed because

1.   Fuel prices
2.   Competition from rivals, both UK and elsewhere in Europe
3.   Change in market plan from “long haul” flights
4.   Terror attacks in several of Monarch's destinations.

CNN under a headline reading German airline goes bust after Etihad pulls plug (http://tinyurl.com/yaehowwe) because Abu Dhabi's Etihad, Air Berlin’s major stockholder, “refused to finance another bailout.” The story was dated August 15, but thanks to a German government handout, Air Berlin continued to sell tickets to the unsuspecting.

Abu Dhabi's Etihad also “pulled the plug on Alitalia earlier this year, prompting the Italian national carrier to enter administration. The Italian government is now trying to find a buyer.”

Meanwhile, Germany’s flag carrier, Lufthansa, is considering options to acquire some of Air Berlin, but there has been no suggestion that Lufthansa would honor Air Berlin tickets.

Unlike the United States, many countries are heavily involved with national businesses; government representatives sit on company boards, as do bankers.

For stranded passengers, or those still waiting for refunds for unused tickets, neither the Germans nor the English have offered help. The English Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has put a plan in place to bring stranded Brits back to the island, but there is nothing, to date, for people either in England or elsewhere to return to their point of origin or even to return to the island for flights home, wherever that might be.

One airline, Abu Dhabi's Etihad, within a year brought down three major carriers: Air Berlin, Alitalia, and Monarch. According to CNN Etihad announced Tuesday that group CEO Australian James Hogan will step down in the second half of 2017 as the company conducts a strategic review of the growth model he pioneered.

"We must ensure that the airline is the right size and the right shape," said board chairman Mohamed Mubarak Fadhel Al Mazrouei.

Interestingly, Abu Dhabi's Etihad refuses to carry Israeli passengers because the United Arab Emirates—its home country—does not recognize the Israel (http://tinyurl.com/yas8yah5).

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

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